The men’s soccer team recorded a pair of wins at home against the Queen’s Gaels and the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins. The Carleton Ravens beat the Gaels 2-0 on Oct. 7, and then beat the Paladins 5-0 the following day.
Against Queen’s on Oct. 7, Ravens forward Gabriel Bitar put Carleton on the board seven minutes into the game when his shot sailed into the net past the Gaels goaltender Alex Jones.
This was the only goal in the first half as Carleton kept the offensive pressure up, but weren’t able to capitalize on any of the opportunities they created.
Starting off the second half in a similar manner as the first, Bitar was able to score his second goal of the game just eight minutes in. He launched the ball from 30 yards out, beating the goaltender and scoring the final goal of the game.
The win against Queen’s put the Ravens in a great position going into their next game against the RMC Paladins. The additional success extended their win streak to six, all but securing them a first place finish in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division.
The Oct. 8 game started off slow as RMC came on strong, desperate for a win. The Ravens defence were able to hold and push back the tough RMC offensive.
Twenty-eight minutes into the first half, Ravens forward Ricky Comba passed the ball through a defender and across the box where Bitar received it and fired the ball past Paladins goaltender Arman Afkham Ebrahim, putting the Ravens on the board.
Only eight minutes later, Bitar received a pass from downfield and went on a breakaway putting the ball past Ebrahim and giving the Ravens the 2-0 lead.
Three minutes before the end of the first half, Comba found the back of the net when he fired the ball to the net and scored, giving the Ravens a 3-0 lead heading into the second half.
Carleton came out strong in the second half as Ravens forward Jeremy Aweya fired a ball into the back of the net past Paladins goaltender Riley Thompson.
Just two minutes after subbing in, Ravens midfielder David Aguib launched the ball from the 30-yard line to net it into the bottom-left corner past Thompson.
There were no more goals during the rest of the game and the Ravens finished, winning 5-0.
“I’m very positive about them. I mean, we took six points which we wanted to do, the only thing that we could perform better, but I was happy with the overall performance,” head coach Kwesi Loney said about the Ravens’ games this weekend.
“We’re a very young group and we’re always maturing, always growing as a team, so it’s just us understanding that patience and working for the full 90 minutes and always competing as a team and not looking to be individuals I think that’s always our growth,” Loney said.
The Ravens sit at the top of the East Division in the OUA, 10 points ahead of the University of Toronto. With a win next weekend, the Ravens have the chance to clinch the first place in the East for the first time since 2011.
“Very positive, very good. We played very well as a team and we got both the wins,” Bitar said.
Bitar was able to score a total of four goals over the weekend putting himself in a tie for top goal scorer in OUA with teammate and fellow first-year Stefan Karajovanovic.
“Just playing better as a team, moving the ball quicker. I think we could have done a bit better finishing, but it was a very good weekend overall,” Bitar said.
The Ravens were able to hold their national ranking steady at fourth in the country this week and continue their offensive domination of the OUA.
The Ravens play their next games on Oct. 14 and 15 as they travel to Oshawa to take on the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks, and then the following day line up against the Trent Excalibur for the final weekend of their regular season.
Photo by Meagan Casalino
